Three Years Ago Today...

...was the disaster that somehow started it all. Randon was a flight instructor, working towards being a commercial jet pilot, and he was pretty close. He flew with one of his students to Detroit to pick up a plane the student had purchased, and they were supposed to fly it back. Shortly after take-off, the plane crashed into a field. Both of them miraculously survived. Look at that. Holy cow. I still can't believe it. Both of Randon's ankles were broken and he suffered severe third degree burns on his right arm and burns and lacerations all over his upper body. Randon doesn't remember going down or escaping the burning wreckage, however, now and then he remembers little things, like laying in the field and feeling the weeds poking the back of his neck. He spent several days at a hospital in Detroit. His Dad and brother, Casey flew out to be with him. Thank heaven for his family. If I had been in the picture at that point, I would have been a basket case. He then started down the road of the painful recovery of not only his body, but his career and the life he knew. Warning...graphic pictures...he had to have two skin grafts, which he says is the worst pain he has ever experienced. I always jokingly complain that I get no sympathy from him when I am giving birth or going through pain, he knows its nothin compared to what he's gone through. (Okay not really, he is a great husband and a great support. But I know I can never use the pain of labor card.) Weeks after the crash, UVSC Flight School fired him from his job as an instructor, I guess not wanting any strings attached to the crash. (Randon was not at fault for the crash.) Any sort of crash puts a black spot on your pilot's record that would have set him back about five years in getting to the airlines. He wasn't offered any workman's comp, and he fought daily with the health insurance companies to pay for his medical care. As I think back to this time, I admire him so much. Some life altering, or rather, life destroying time would send many people, count me as one of them into a downward spiral of depression. Randon wouldn't let it get him down. He looked at it as an opportunity for growth and new career paths and got involved in the world of real estate and has done an awesome job. Every time we fly, it breaks my heart when I see in his eyes that he wishes he could still be a pilot. He loves everything about it. But instead of flying others on a commercial jet, he now has a goal to one day own his own private jet to fly. More power to ya babe! Not only did the crash change his life that way...it presented the opportunity to meet ME! :) I still remember being anxious for the blind date. I had never seen him, but had only heard the stories. Our first date was August 11, two months after he crashed. Everyone was teasing me saying to be nice since he walked with a walker and that he might drool a little bit trying to make me nervous. I was thinking oh great...pity date. Turns out he could walk just fine with no walker, he had just gotten his casts off. You could really only tell by the compression glove he had to wear on his arm, that he told people when they asked what it was for that he had gotten attacked by piranhas in Alaska or some totally believable story. He later told me he had waited to call me hoping I would be the one to make the first move and bring him cookies. Psh. I couldn't come off as desperate! Just kidding. I wish I had been there sooner to have offered him any support I could have. Well obviously we fell in love and the rest is history. I'm just so grateful for the chance I had to meet him, even if it did come at the price of a little pain on his part. :) And I'm thankful as I know he is for his family that took care of him and did everything for him. I'm thankful for his example of how he meets challenges head on and finds a solution to anything. And I'm glad he is alive! I love you Randon! And so does Easton, Happy Fathers Day! Now lets get workin on that private jet, eh?